kickingandscreaming
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The Left is in a mental health crisis.
Today in Fascism
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The Left is in a mental health crisis.
Hüsker Dü
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Whistleblower reveals exactly what happened behind closed doors at the Kennedy Center.
Josef Palermo was the Kennedy Center's very first curator of visual arts. Soon after he accepted that position, he spent 10 months watching Donald Trump's team systematically loot, corrupt, and destroy one of America's most iconic cultural institutions. When they fired him and offered severance in exchange for his silence, he bravely said no.
Now he's talking. And what he saw is worse than you even imagined.
Trump appointed Richard— a former ambassador with zero arts expertise who reportedly wanted to be Secretary of State instead — to be his president of the arts institution. Palermo says that Grenell treated the Kennedy Center presidency as a consolation prize and ran the institution like a personal fiefdom and a Trump fundraising operation simultaneously.
Box seats for Les Misérables went for $2 million, with a private presidential reception included. As one of Palermo's colleagues — a Republican campaign veteran — put it: "We are grafting political management principles into a nonpolitical organization."
According to Palermo, the corruption was everywhere. The historic Circles Lounge was renamed the SyberJet Lounge — after an aircraft company whose CEO had been convicted of defrauding investors and received a Trump pardon.
The African Room, filled with priceless artifacts representing African cultural heritage, was renamed "A Tribute to America's Intelligence Community" and handed to a donor the Wall Street Journal described as someone who allegedly lied about being in the CIA. Priceless handmade African textiles, a wooden sculpture donated by Ghana to mourn President Kennedy's assassination, and doors carved from 700-year-old wood depicting Yoruban village scenes were taken down. Palermo was never told where they went.
At an October 7th anniversary commemoration in the Israeli Lounge — an event honoring victims of a pogrom — Grenell used the occasion to shake down the Jewish attendees for donations, warning that the lounge would be "given away" to a new sponsor if they didn't write checks. "It certainly would be a shame if we lost this room," he said. Palermo was mortified.
One of Grenell's lieutenants texted Palermo asking if the Center could "do something" with an artist whose work Grenell personally owned — a move that would have increased the artwork's auction value and directly benefited Grenell. Palermo ignored the request.
Meanwhile, Grenell instituted a return-to-office mandate that applied to everyone except himself. While staffers' meeting requests went unanswered, Grenell was posting Instagram photos from a yacht off the coast of Croatia. The Kennedy Center now denies this happened, despite the existence of the Instagram posts.
Then came the order that stopped Palermo cold. Grenell told him to "get rid of everything" in the permanent collection — including the eight-foot, 3,000-pound brass bust of President Kennedy that has stood in the Grand Foyer since the center opened. If donors wouldn't pay for removal, Grenell said, they could auction the works off or give them away. When Palermo reported this to another senior leader, the man's eyes went wide. He told Palermo to do nothing and said his office would handle it.
The roof was leaking. The willow trees outside were rotting. The fundraising operation couldn't pay its postage invoices. But the high-priority renovation? Gold gilding on the chandelier of the presidential box in the Opera House.
Grenell's grand vision for America's 250th birthday celebration at the nation's premier cultural center? An America's Got Talent-style talent show. We’re not kidding.
Palermo refused the gag order. He is now cooperating with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's investigation and has been in contact with Representative Joyce Beatty's legal team, which is suing to stop the renaming of the center.
"There must be a firewall put in place by Congress to prevent this kind of hostile political takeover of the Kennedy Center from ever happening again," he wrote.
The Kennedy Center was built as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy — a gift to the American people and a symbol of this nation's commitment to art, culture, and the best of what humanity can create. Trump renamed it after himself, tried to sell its lounges to Kazakhstan, ordered its permanent collection disposed of, and ran it into the ground in less than a year.
The bust of President Kennedy still stands in the Grand Foyer. For now.
Please like and share this post if you believe America's cultural institutions belong to the American people — not to Trump's donors, Trump's pardoned felons, and Trump's Instagram feed.
Josef Palermo was the Kennedy Center's very first curator of visual arts. Soon after he accepted that position, he spent 10 months watching Donald Trump's team systematically loot, corrupt, and destroy one of America's most iconic cultural institutions. When they fired him and offered severance in exchange for his silence, he bravely said no.
Now he's talking. And what he saw is worse than you even imagined.
Trump appointed Richard— a former ambassador with zero arts expertise who reportedly wanted to be Secretary of State instead — to be his president of the arts institution. Palermo says that Grenell treated the Kennedy Center presidency as a consolation prize and ran the institution like a personal fiefdom and a Trump fundraising operation simultaneously.
Box seats for Les Misérables went for $2 million, with a private presidential reception included. As one of Palermo's colleagues — a Republican campaign veteran — put it: "We are grafting political management principles into a nonpolitical organization."
According to Palermo, the corruption was everywhere. The historic Circles Lounge was renamed the SyberJet Lounge — after an aircraft company whose CEO had been convicted of defrauding investors and received a Trump pardon.
The African Room, filled with priceless artifacts representing African cultural heritage, was renamed "A Tribute to America's Intelligence Community" and handed to a donor the Wall Street Journal described as someone who allegedly lied about being in the CIA. Priceless handmade African textiles, a wooden sculpture donated by Ghana to mourn President Kennedy's assassination, and doors carved from 700-year-old wood depicting Yoruban village scenes were taken down. Palermo was never told where they went.
At an October 7th anniversary commemoration in the Israeli Lounge — an event honoring victims of a pogrom — Grenell used the occasion to shake down the Jewish attendees for donations, warning that the lounge would be "given away" to a new sponsor if they didn't write checks. "It certainly would be a shame if we lost this room," he said. Palermo was mortified.
One of Grenell's lieutenants texted Palermo asking if the Center could "do something" with an artist whose work Grenell personally owned — a move that would have increased the artwork's auction value and directly benefited Grenell. Palermo ignored the request.
Meanwhile, Grenell instituted a return-to-office mandate that applied to everyone except himself. While staffers' meeting requests went unanswered, Grenell was posting Instagram photos from a yacht off the coast of Croatia. The Kennedy Center now denies this happened, despite the existence of the Instagram posts.
Then came the order that stopped Palermo cold. Grenell told him to "get rid of everything" in the permanent collection — including the eight-foot, 3,000-pound brass bust of President Kennedy that has stood in the Grand Foyer since the center opened. If donors wouldn't pay for removal, Grenell said, they could auction the works off or give them away. When Palermo reported this to another senior leader, the man's eyes went wide. He told Palermo to do nothing and said his office would handle it.
The roof was leaking. The willow trees outside were rotting. The fundraising operation couldn't pay its postage invoices. But the high-priority renovation? Gold gilding on the chandelier of the presidential box in the Opera House.
Grenell's grand vision for America's 250th birthday celebration at the nation's premier cultural center? An America's Got Talent-style talent show. We’re not kidding.
Palermo refused the gag order. He is now cooperating with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse's investigation and has been in contact with Representative Joyce Beatty's legal team, which is suing to stop the renaming of the center.
"There must be a firewall put in place by Congress to prevent this kind of hostile political takeover of the Kennedy Center from ever happening again," he wrote.
The Kennedy Center was built as a living memorial to President John F. Kennedy — a gift to the American people and a symbol of this nation's commitment to art, culture, and the best of what humanity can create. Trump renamed it after himself, tried to sell its lounges to Kazakhstan, ordered its permanent collection disposed of, and ran it into the ground in less than a year.
The bust of President Kennedy still stands in the Grand Foyer. For now.
Please like and share this post if you believe America's cultural institutions belong to the American people — not to Trump's donors, Trump's pardoned felons, and Trump's Instagram feed.
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
Leftists lie - it’s in their nature.
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Adam Urato, MD (@AdamUrato1) on X
Now that the second Pennsylvania death has been revealed, it is clear that Gov. Shapiro's press conference (& the media coverage) was misleading. 1. Gov. Shapiro used the term "unvaccinated" to describe the two. But neither child was eligible for the MMR vaccine. The boy died right after birth, an…
Hüsker Dü
DA
merican Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump is a 2026 biographical work by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Kai Bird and researcher Susan Goldmark, published by Scribner. [1, 2, 3]
What the Book is About
What the Book is About
- The Ultimate Fixer: The biography explores the life of Roy Cohn, detailing how he sat at the center of American political corruption and power from the 1950s through the 1980s. [1]
- McCarthyism and Red Scare: “At 27, Cohn was on the cover of Time magazine,” after graduating from Columbia Law School at age 20, prosecuting Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, and serving as chief legal counsel to Senator Joseph McCarthy during the brutal communist witch-hunts [. [1, 2, 3]
- The Mob and Manhattan Elite: After being pushed out following the Army-McCarthy hearings, Cohn reinvented himself in New York as a high-priced divorce attorney, a lawyer for organized crime families, and a political fixer rubbing shoulders with the glitterati. [1, 2]
- The Trump Connection: “[The authors] tell the long, sordid tale of how one 'narcissistic con artist'—as they characterize Cohn—did so much to create another, the man who now occupies the most powerful office in the world.” Cohn mentored a young Donald Trump in the 1970s and 1980s, instilling in him a playbook of aggressive counterattacking, evading rules, and never admitting defeat. [1, 2, 3]
- Legacy: Cohn died of AIDS-related complications in 1986 while vehemently denying his illness and closeted sexuality, leaving a dark legacy that directly bridges mid-century McCarthyism to modern American populism.
Chelsea dad g09
SILVER
Since when has the Kennedy Center been non political?
Chelsea dad g09
SILVER
The pride in some people is utterly insane. Trump is on FIRE and winning!!! Look at Du Du on here this week. A total loser with zero humility. The only avatar that likes any of his shitty takes is espola. espola is full of hate as much as Du Du is full of shit and hate. espola only desire before he dies is to pee on T's grave and he told all of us Charlie Kirk deserved to be assassinated for his actions on campus talk that day.
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
Yeah
x.com
Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) on X
El Sayed is at least an honest communist: He’s promising to make EVERYONE poor.
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
Wonder what he’d do to lil e’s gummies?
x.com
Spencer Pratt (@spencerpratt) on X
Oompa Loompa Abdul confesses to violently smashing a bottle of Vodka on the floor of an immigrant store-owner because it violated Sharia Law. Says it was justified because the clerk called Abdul's beard "short". Lil guy's got the worst Napoleon complex
kickingandscreaming
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It’s a BIG tent now. 
x.com
Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) on X
Progressives cancel you for microagressions but call black Americans “monkeys” because Israel or something.
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
Leftist women everywhere are SO twisted.
x.com
Henda Ayari (@HendaAyari5) on X
Message aux féministes de gauche qui portent le voile par solidarité Je vois depuis quelques jours des féministes françaises, des inconnues, influenceuses de gauche, se voiler sur les réseaux sociaux par « solidarité » avec les femmes voilées contre la proposition du RN. Mais je me pose une quest…
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
It’s a BIG tent now.
View attachment 40725
Eyal Yakoby (@EYakoby) on X
Progressives cancel you for microagressions but call black Americans “monkeys” because Israel or something.
Evidently, a big racist tent
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
It’s a BIG tent!
kickingandscreaming
PREMIER
These absolute monstrous tools. Take your family and daughters to live there. Walk their streets at night. You will definitely “feel” the compassion.
x.com
Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) on X
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) lauds Spain's socialist government as "an incredible ray of hope in Europe and around the world" that "handled a migration situation in Ceuta with enormous skill and compassion."
Hüsker Dü
DA
I recently had a Trump supporter ask me how I'm so sure that his economic policies won't work.
I laughed — then I said, you're joking, right?
The question really should be: Why would anyone think someone who's failed at basically every business he's ever created would know how to run a country?
I asked them to name one thriving, successful business he's created that wasn't just a wealth generator for himself. As in, name something tangible with Trump's name on it that he's created that actually is seen as a "success."
His biggest "success" is conning people into thinking he's a "success."
Sure, he's built a few buildings, but the majority of the ones that have his name on them, he had little to do with outside of licensing his name to be put on them.
To be fair, that is a level of successful marketing — but he's marketing a lie. That lie being that he's a "hugely successful businessman."
You can put "Trump" in front of a ton of nouns, and you would list one of his many business failures.
Trump: Magazine, Vodka, Steaks, Mortgage, University, Shuttle, all the various names of his hotels and casinos — all massive failures.
For example, here's how long some of his many business failures lasted:
Trump Taj Mahal: Roughly 15 months
Trump Shuttle: 3 years
Trump University (which was a scam): 5 years
Trump Mortgage: Roughly 18 months
Trump Steaks: 2 months
GoTrump.com: Roughly 12 months
Trump Magazine: 3 years
And there's so much context, such as Trump University being nothing but a scam; Trump Magazine being something he started right at the dawn of the digital age of media; Trump Mortgage being something he launched at what he called the "perfect time" to start a mortgage company, just before the worst housing collapse in history; and the fact that he's run every single casino — entities designed to make the house money — out of business.
I mean, come on — he literally started a mortgage company just before the worst housing crash we've ever seen. You can't make that up when it comes to terrible instincts as a businessperson.
Then there's his foundation, which he shut down after he was caught stealing funds from it for his own personal use.
The list goes on and on.
His greatest "success" is his role playing a fake CEO on a fake reality TV show where fake employees did fake work tasks and he fake fired them.
Everything about his image of a "massively successful businessman" is based on total bullsh*t.
That's why I don't trust his economic policies.
We're over 18 months into his second term, and look at the damage he's done. Literally every major economic metric is worse now than when he took over. He's singlehandedly responsible for inflation hitting three-year highs and diesel prices setting new records.
Despite his asinine tariffs, our trade deficit in 2025 was no better than in 2024, and the "goods" deficit actually grew.
The only thing his tariffs did was force every American to pay more for damn near everything.
His current trade war with Canada — you know how idiotic this is? This is a president who's trashing the trade agreement we have with the Canadians — the same trade agreement he signed and boasted about during his first administration.
The moron is literally trashing his own trade agreement. That's how ridiculous his attacks on Canada have been.
His entire reputation as a businessman was built on screwing over small businesses and contractors, racking up bankruptcies and failures, and being so toxic that he was basically run out of New York City because no one wanted to do business with him.
Besides, what has he ever said he would do economically that's actually come true?
Did he "very easily" end deficits and pay off the national debt?
Nope.
Did he "cut electric bills in half during his first 12 months"?
Nope.
Did we ever get DOGE rebate checks or tariff dividend payments?
Nope.
Did his tax cuts even reduce our deficits?
Nope.
Did his tariffs lower our trade deficits?
Nope.
Did he get Mexico to pay for his wall?
Nope.
Even this whole delusion about him being a "master negotiator" — based on what evidence?
He didn't "very easily" end the war in Ukraine; he can't get out of his disastrous war in Iran; and his big promise of "90 trade deals in 90 days" that expired well over a year ago never came anywhere close to being a reality. At best, he signed a handful of tentative outlines of an agreement, but no in-depth, detailed trade deals — and damn sure not 90 of them.
Remember when he said Barack Obama would start a war with Iran because he was a "weak and ineffective negotiator"? Well, our 44th president never started that war — but Trump sure as heck did.
So, I guess according to Trump, he's a "weak and ineffective negotiator"?
His only "negotiation" tactic is to try to bully other people into doing what he wants, then throw hissy fits when anyone pushes back against him.
That's literally it.
That's the end of his "negotiation strategy."
Even his boasting about the economy being "better than ever" is all 100% total bullsh*t. There's no major economic metric anywhere that's better now than even when he took office — let alone "the best ever."
Just like everything about him, it's just his attempt to market failure as "success."
He reminds me of a sales guy I worked with who I couldn't stand. We had a new CFO come in who wasn't a fan of him either. One day, the CFO asked me what I thought of him. My answer was, "His best skill is selling himself as a great salesperson — but he sucks, hardly sells, and doesn't make us any money."
That's Trump.
His greatest "success" is being a con artist who, to his credit, did a great job marketing a failure as a businessman as "successful." It's why I've called him possibly the greatest con man in human history.
So, that's why I don't trust his economic policies — because there's nothing in Donald Trump's past or present that tells me he's anything more than an incompetent, narcissistic, total f*cking idiot whose best "skill" is somehow convincing others that he's successful, despite a resume filled with unethical business practices, screwing over anyone he needed to in order to get ahead, and a long list of failed businesses and poor decisions.
I laughed — then I said, you're joking, right?
The question really should be: Why would anyone think someone who's failed at basically every business he's ever created would know how to run a country?
I asked them to name one thriving, successful business he's created that wasn't just a wealth generator for himself. As in, name something tangible with Trump's name on it that he's created that actually is seen as a "success."
His biggest "success" is conning people into thinking he's a "success."
Sure, he's built a few buildings, but the majority of the ones that have his name on them, he had little to do with outside of licensing his name to be put on them.
To be fair, that is a level of successful marketing — but he's marketing a lie. That lie being that he's a "hugely successful businessman."
You can put "Trump" in front of a ton of nouns, and you would list one of his many business failures.
Trump: Magazine, Vodka, Steaks, Mortgage, University, Shuttle, all the various names of his hotels and casinos — all massive failures.
For example, here's how long some of his many business failures lasted:
Trump Taj Mahal: Roughly 15 months
Trump Shuttle: 3 years
Trump University (which was a scam): 5 years
Trump Mortgage: Roughly 18 months
Trump Steaks: 2 months
GoTrump.com: Roughly 12 months
Trump Magazine: 3 years
And there's so much context, such as Trump University being nothing but a scam; Trump Magazine being something he started right at the dawn of the digital age of media; Trump Mortgage being something he launched at what he called the "perfect time" to start a mortgage company, just before the worst housing collapse in history; and the fact that he's run every single casino — entities designed to make the house money — out of business.
I mean, come on — he literally started a mortgage company just before the worst housing crash we've ever seen. You can't make that up when it comes to terrible instincts as a businessperson.
Then there's his foundation, which he shut down after he was caught stealing funds from it for his own personal use.
The list goes on and on.
His greatest "success" is his role playing a fake CEO on a fake reality TV show where fake employees did fake work tasks and he fake fired them.
Everything about his image of a "massively successful businessman" is based on total bullsh*t.
That's why I don't trust his economic policies.
We're over 18 months into his second term, and look at the damage he's done. Literally every major economic metric is worse now than when he took over. He's singlehandedly responsible for inflation hitting three-year highs and diesel prices setting new records.
Despite his asinine tariffs, our trade deficit in 2025 was no better than in 2024, and the "goods" deficit actually grew.
The only thing his tariffs did was force every American to pay more for damn near everything.
His current trade war with Canada — you know how idiotic this is? This is a president who's trashing the trade agreement we have with the Canadians — the same trade agreement he signed and boasted about during his first administration.
The moron is literally trashing his own trade agreement. That's how ridiculous his attacks on Canada have been.
His entire reputation as a businessman was built on screwing over small businesses and contractors, racking up bankruptcies and failures, and being so toxic that he was basically run out of New York City because no one wanted to do business with him.
Besides, what has he ever said he would do economically that's actually come true?
Did he "very easily" end deficits and pay off the national debt?
Nope.
Did he "cut electric bills in half during his first 12 months"?
Nope.
Did we ever get DOGE rebate checks or tariff dividend payments?
Nope.
Did his tax cuts even reduce our deficits?
Nope.
Did his tariffs lower our trade deficits?
Nope.
Did he get Mexico to pay for his wall?
Nope.
Even this whole delusion about him being a "master negotiator" — based on what evidence?
He didn't "very easily" end the war in Ukraine; he can't get out of his disastrous war in Iran; and his big promise of "90 trade deals in 90 days" that expired well over a year ago never came anywhere close to being a reality. At best, he signed a handful of tentative outlines of an agreement, but no in-depth, detailed trade deals — and damn sure not 90 of them.
Remember when he said Barack Obama would start a war with Iran because he was a "weak and ineffective negotiator"? Well, our 44th president never started that war — but Trump sure as heck did.
So, I guess according to Trump, he's a "weak and ineffective negotiator"?
His only "negotiation" tactic is to try to bully other people into doing what he wants, then throw hissy fits when anyone pushes back against him.
That's literally it.
That's the end of his "negotiation strategy."
Even his boasting about the economy being "better than ever" is all 100% total bullsh*t. There's no major economic metric anywhere that's better now than even when he took office — let alone "the best ever."
Just like everything about him, it's just his attempt to market failure as "success."
He reminds me of a sales guy I worked with who I couldn't stand. We had a new CFO come in who wasn't a fan of him either. One day, the CFO asked me what I thought of him. My answer was, "His best skill is selling himself as a great salesperson — but he sucks, hardly sells, and doesn't make us any money."
That's Trump.
His greatest "success" is being a con artist who, to his credit, did a great job marketing a failure as a businessman as "successful." It's why I've called him possibly the greatest con man in human history.
So, that's why I don't trust his economic policies — because there's nothing in Donald Trump's past or present that tells me he's anything more than an incompetent, narcissistic, total f*cking idiot whose best "skill" is somehow convincing others that he's successful, despite a resume filled with unethical business practices, screwing over anyone he needed to in order to get ahead, and a long list of failed businesses and poor decisions.